“Great first impression,” Hill said. “I feel like he was stern in a good way. He has a great resume behind him … He’s been coaching 30-plus years now. He’s used to knowing what he’s doing and we have to abide by that and we respect it.”

Cam Taylor-Britt, another starting cornerback from the draft class of ’22, liked Golden’s message of no gray areas.

“Yeah, I noticed that,” Tayor-Britt said. “Love him already. Very vocal. Very detailed. The message today, get adjusted to the new stuff right now … a simple guy. He just wants us to go out and play.”

The guy who knows Golden best, the guy Golden had a hand in drafting five years ago when he was the linebackers coach, Logan Wilson, heard no surprises.

Wilson, who missed the last six games because of a knee injury, says he’s ready to go right now. That should be a big help next month as Golden implements his scheme with Wilson on the field.

“He’s a player’s coach. I think he’ll empower us. It will give us a different type of energy,” Wilson said. “Get back to the fundamentals of ball disruption and things like that. Turnovers are obviously the big part of playing defense. Especially the more we can give the ball back to our offense with how explosive they are.”

When he made the move to change defensive coordinators after last season and with it a chunk of the staff, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor was searching for different frames of reference after six years with the same defense.

He got exactly that with Golden in a conversation he’s enjoying.

“I think anytime it’s just different people, you’re always going to have different conversations. And that’s the beauty of it is people can see things differently, and that’s good,” Taylor said Monday. “We want different voices in the room. Al has done a great job of opening it up to every coach that’s in that room.

“What are your thoughts, what are your opinions, before deciding on something official. But he’s done a great job driving the bus, making those decisions when needed. So it’s just been a fun process to be part of, and I’m really encouraged by it.”